EQUINET Legal Training TOOLS OF EVIDENCE IN DISCRIMINATION CASES TRAINING PROGRAMME 11-12 October 2010, Bratislava (Slovakia) This legal oriented training event will primarily target legal staff within specialised equality bodies dealing with individual cases and assistance to victims. The training event will observe the diversity of Equinet members and will employ a comparative approach to the implementation of anti-discrimination law. The main goals of this training will be: to deepen participants knowledge necessary to efficiently deal with case law to further develop their skills in interpreting anti-discrimination legislation, to help identifying and collecting facts from which it may be presumed that there has been direct or indirect discrimination and therefore result in the shifting of the burden of proof according to the EU Directives to raise and discuss difficulties of collecting and evaluating evidence for discrimination cases to identify and analyse new tools of evidence and their characteristics. The training will feature short presentations of speakers from equality bodies, the academia, representatives of NGOs and the social partners, focusing on aspects such as: the use of situation testing as evidence in court, the use of statistics as evidence of discrimination. the preparation of evidence in relation to particular incidents of discrimination and the role of different stakeholders in collecting evidence. The training is designed to also create the opportunity for participants to share their experiences and knowledge in relation to building and developing effective strategies when taking discrimination cases. Participants will share and discuss their ideas on concrete cases in two interactive workshop sessions and will be asked to contribute their experiences at the plenary sessions. 1
DAY 1 - Monday 11 th October 2010 09.00 09.30 09.30 10.00 Registration & Welcome coffee/tea Opening Address Daniela Gemerská, Deputy Director, Slovak National Centre for Human Rights Mandana Zarrehparvar, Chair of EQUINET Board, Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark) 10.00 11.00 Session 1 (Plenary) Approaches of national equality bodies to collecting evidence Chair: Jozef de Witte, Director, Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (Belgium) and EQUINET Board Member 10.00-10.20 Collecting evidence - practical shortcomings of the traditional tools of evidence in discrimination cases Bjørn DILOU JACOBSEN Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark) 10.20-10.40 Collecting and evaluating evidence: the perspective of an equality body Marie BECKER High Commission Against Discrimination and for Equality HALDE (France) 10.40 11.00 Questions & Answers Discussion 11.00-11.15 Coffee break 11.15 13.15 Workshop Session I Working group discussions on proving an equal pay case (possible approaches, difficulties) Facilitators: Marije Graven, Dutch Equal Treatment Commission (The Netherlands) Geraldine Hynes, Equality Authority (Ireland) Tamás Kádár, EQUINET Secretariat 2
13.15-14.30 Lunch 14.30 15.30 Session 2 (Plenary) Roles of different stakeholders and new tools in collecting evidence Chair: Domenica Ghidei, Commissioner, Equal Treatment Commission (The Netherlands) and EQUINET Board Member 14.30 14.50 The role of NGOs and the civil sector in collecting evidence. How equality bodies can make use of it? 14.50 15.10 The use of situation testing as evidence in legal proceedings Dieter SCHINDLAUER, ZARA Zivilcourage und Anti- Rassismus- Arbeit (Austria) Márton UDVARI dr. Legal Defence Bureau for National and Ethnic Minorities (NEKI) (Hungary) 15.10 15.30 Questions & Answers Discussion 15.30-15.45 Coffee break 15.45 17.45 Workshop Session II Working group discussions on proving a housing case (possible approaches, difficulties) Facilitators: Marije Graven, Dutch Equal Treatment Commission (The Netherlands) Nanna Margrethe Krusaa, Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark) Tamás Kádár, EQUINET Secretariat 18.30 19.30 Guided tour of Bratislava Meeting Point: Lobby of the Crowne Plaza Bratislava, 18H30 19.30 - Dinner and social event Restaurant Parlamentka, Nám. A. Dubčeka 1, 812 80 Bratislava 3
DAY 2 -Tuesday 12 th October 2010 09.00 10.10 Session 3 (Plenary) Making the legislation work alternative tools for collecting evidence in equal pay cases Chair: Ingrid Nikolay - Leitner, Equal Treatment Ombud (Austria) and EQUINET Board Member 09.00-09.25 Collecting evidence and litigating equal pay cases strategically Bronwyn McKenna Legal Director UNISON Public Service Union (United Kingdom) 09.25-09.50 Pay survey and analysis to identify and adjust differences in pay between women and men at the workplace. Applicability of the method for other grounds. Ulrika JOHANSSON Equality Ombudsman (Sweden) 09.50 10.10 Questions & Answers Discussion 10.10 10.30 Coffee Break 10.30 12.30 Session 4 (Plenary) Lessons learned and practical experiences Chair: Mandana Zarrehparvar, Danish Institute for Human Rights (Denmark) and Chair of EQUINET Board 10.30 11.20 Presentation of the results of workshop I and II 11.20 12.00 Sharing the experiences short case studies from 4 different equality bodies Office of the Ombudsman for Minorities (Finland) Office of the Greek Ombudsman Equal Treatment Commission (the Netherlands) Slovak National Centre for Human Rights 4
12.00 12.30 Questions & Answers Discussion 12.30-13.00 Closing of the training and concluding remarks Daniela Gemerská, Deputy Director, Slovak National Centre for Human Rights Anne Gaspard, Executive Director EQUINET Secretariat 13.00-14.00 Lunch & Departure of participants 5